Phew!

1. The Boy is back from his Devon Adventure. Brown, grazed, dirty, smelly, tired but very happy.

2. A particularly tedious and time-consuming manuscript is off my desk at last, so life and work can resume a slightly more normal rhythm, so far as it ever achieves anything resembling 'normality'

3. The gooseberry and elderflower jam is completely the wrong colour but delicious nevertheless. For green gooseberry jam, apparently, one needs hard, under-ripe fruit. Ours were ripe and sweet and beginning to blush (perfect for eating raw), so the jam took longer to set and turned pink. No matter. It's the taste that counts, and on that score I think it can be considered a success. SD#3 designed the labels. Note wholly misleading jam-jar lid! I've run out of Kilner jars and so am employing the dregs of the recycled collection.






My trusty little camera finally gave up the ghost today. This has made me irrationally sad and wailey bordering on the weepy. I really loved it! My new mobile phone has far more megapixels and clever functions and so in theory takes much better pics, but it just isn't the same. I'm not awfully keen on gadgetry - I prefer things to be simple. Anyway, feeling rather naked (though actually quite decently attired), I skipped off down to the sea wall for a quick dog walk this evening before the Boy got back. And took these on my phone:

A big sloppy wet Mersea kiss!!

Now I'm off to bed with the wonderful Scones book, which is proving every bit as appetising as it sounds.